The
top-ranked player beat Gilles Simon 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in his opening match
at the Western & Southern Open on Tuesday night. It's the only
Masters series event he has never won, finishing as the runner-up four
times.
If he wins this week, he'll become the first with titles at all nine ATP Masters events.
First, he had to get
past Simon. He had trouble putting away the Frenchman, whom he has now
beaten eight straight times. The opening game of the third set went 20
points and 15 minutes, with Simon surviving six break points.
Djokovic
finally broke through for a 4-3 lead and served out the 2-hour,
9-minute match. The last set alone took 59 minutes. Djokovic had 36
unforced errors in the breezy evening conditions.
"Let's
be honest: I don't enjoy playing bad," Djokovic said. "I don't enjoy
missing a lot of balls from the baseline. That was frustrating for me.
"I'm not playing at a level that I need to be, and it's obvious. I keep pushing myself."
The
tournament lost its other defending champion on Tuesday when Victoria
Azarenka withdrew because of an injured right knee. Defending champion
Rafael Nadal withdrew before the tournament because of an injured wrist.
While
Djokovic managed to advance despite his struggles, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
and Venus Williams made quick exits after leaving their winning touch in
Canada.
Two days after he beat Roger Federer
for his second Masters title in Toronto, Tsonga fell to Mikhail fell to
Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-4.
"I don't have the
energy to compete," Tsonga said after the 68-minute match. "I just gave
everything last week. Before the match, I believed I was able to play at
a good level. But on court, I realized that was going to be impossible.
And it was."
Williams knocked off sister
Serena while reaching the finals in Montreal on Sunday, finishing
runner-up. She lost to Lucie Safarova 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4 in the first
round Tuesday.
"I wish I could have felt today like I did in Montreal, just to make it more competitive," Williams said.
Williams
and Tsonga had energizing weeks in Canada and hoped to keep their
momentum going in Cincinnati, using it as a springboard to the U.S.
Open. Both soon realized their successful weeks came with a cost.
Williams arrived Sunday night and opened Tuesday morning, leaving little time to recover from her deep tournament run.
"Yeah,
it was definitely a quick turnaround," she said. "Maybe it would have
been a little better to play a little later in the day. But I think she
just played so well. No matter what shot I hit, she hit a winner."
Tsonga
beat Djokovic, Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov and Federer to win in
Toronto, the first time in 12 years a player beat four straight top 10
opponents at a Masters tournament. He arrived Monday and couldn't
practice because of rain. He plans to rest for a few days.
"I didn't have enough today to compete at a good level," he said.
Azarenka's
withdrawal is the latest setback in her season full of injuries. She's
been sidelined for much of the year with an ailing left foot. She
aggravated an injury to her right knee at Montreal, where she lost in
the quarterfinals, and hoped a few days of rest would take care of it.
"I
started to feel a little bit better and did everything I could, but
it's just not enough time for me to feel good to play a full match," she
said.
Fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova broke
Madison Keys to go up 3-0 in the final set and held on for a 6-1, 3-6,
6-3 win that was gratifying. She was coming off a loss in the third
round at Montreal.
"I didn't have a great week
last week," she said. "No matter who is across the net, it's never easy
going out in the first round because you want to change that result
around."
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